It’s Not All Obama’s Fault

A couple of days ago, Rush Limbaugh took a call from a gentleman who asked "if a constitutional government is the best form of government, and the constitutional government has allowed us to go so far away from the Constitution, would there have been a better way to have gone?"

Rush's answer was: "The Founding Fathers knew human nature. The people that put together this Constitution understood that it was only a matter of time before power-thirsty and -hungry despots would try to take this country over and turn it into the average, ordinary tyranny that every other country in the world has been or will be."

And he's absolutely right about the founders. They were brilliant men who did fully understand human nature. He went on to explain to the caller why we left England and eventually wished to gain our independence from a tyrannical King and government.

Rush then leaped forward to present day, explaining how Congress has willfully given their authority over to Obama – that it's both the democrats and republicans who have relinquished their Constitutional power of the purse, among other things.

Now, I'll grant you that Obama and his entire administration may well be the end of the road for an originalist Constitutional Republic, but he is merely the culmination of almost two centuries of work by progressives. He surely didn't start the process – he just may be the man to end it.

America has actually been suffering from a terminal progressive disease for about 189 years.

It was July 4, 1826, when the Constitutional Republic known as the United States of America developed the first symptoms of the disease. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the second and third presidents of the United States, respectively, die on this day.

These were the last of the preeminent founders to die. A mere three years later, the first president to be elected after this historic event ushered in a new era, as Manifest Destiny replaced Divine Providence as the driving force in government and politics. It was the election, in 1829, of Andrew Jackson.

Last year, I penned an article entitled "A Vision of Despotism" where I explained just how we lost our way.

I wrote:

Take, for example, a man--any man. He starts a company from scratch – builds it up from nothing into something great. He is rightly proud of his accomplishment, of all the hard work and his vision for its success.

He has a son who comes to work for him, and his dream is to pass the company to the son. The son progresses through the ranks and becomes the president of his father's company. He has his own ideas, but faithfully and honorably follows his dad's vision.

The story ends, as does the company, with the passing of the father. Now that "dad" is out of the way, he naturally thinks his vision for the company is superior and steers it in another direction and to its eventual demise.

It happens all the time. And that's what happened to our great Republic.

Our country flipped from one of Divine Providence under the watchful eyes of the founders, to one of Manifest Destiny around the time of Andrew Jackson, which roughly coincides with the passing of the last founding fathers.

With "Dad" out of the way, our nation's leaders were now "free" to pursue a different vision, one that Ben Franklin foretold.

So why has it taken so long? After all, "Dad" died centuries ago.

Well, each generation must be born into a nation that is just a little less anchored to our founding principles.

Neither Woodrow Wilson nor Franklin Roosevelt was completely successful because there were still enough citizens that grew up without all the safety nets and regulations. The citizenry of that era could still recall a time of American "rugged individualism."

Over the years, from generation to generation, that has been "bred" out of a lot of us.

We know nothing of a time without welfare, food stamps, Social Security, unemployment insurance, and massive government rules and regulations.

And that's how we ended up with Obama. He is merely the culmination of almost two centuries of the "sons" running the company.

To them, it's not radical ideology or despotism. It's merely the "son's" vs. the "father's" vision.

So don't merely blame Obama for this mess we're in. He is just the great, great, great, however many more, grandchild of the original carriers of the disease.

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About the AuthorThe Common Constitutionalist

Brent, aka The Common Constitutionalist, is a Constitutional Conservative, and advocates for first principles, founders original intent and enemy of progressives. As well as publisher of the Common Constitutional blog, he also is a contributing writer for Political Outcast, Godfather Politics, Minute Men News (Liberty Alliance) and Free Republic